David's Shutter Bug Club

[David In Indy]

I like all your pictures dev!! They are all excellent, and the composition is very good too. My favorite picture is the bottom one with the boats. I love how you "framed" the picture by including the tree trunk over on the right hand side. And we can see the waterfront and the boats very clearly.

The night scene of the skyline is also very good. Night shots can be very difficult. You did a good job! One tip for taking pictures at night - if you wish to reduce some of the noise in those night pictures, try reducing the ISO, and then bumping down the shutter speed and little bit. You may need a tripod when you do this, but it will help to keep your pictures clear.

I've found ISO settings above 400 tend to generate noise in pictures, at least on Canon cameras. Image noise is a common problem in all digital cameras. You will figure out the best way to reduce the noise as you become familiar with your camera.

Nice pictures Dev!!

[Brokeback_Dev]

Thanks David!  Very nice of you to help me out.   Yes I see what you mean buy noise.  That appears in a few of my pics.  What is the ISO?  I'm totally photography illiterate.  LOL

I love my new camera.  I'm having so much fun with it.  I got all kinds of pics of me with friends last weekend.   I took one of a couple and got a great shot of a firework going off right over them to the side.  Dont think I should post it though becasue I dont have their permission

[Shasta542]

I've GOT to find my digital camera charger!! I just saw an old Camaro parked in a restaurant lot -- it was painted purple with a set of red longhorns affixed to the hood. 

[Kelda]

yeah I like the last picture too Dev - the framing of it is good.

Kelda, you really should have that picture printed professionally, and then frame it. It might cost you 30 or 40 bucks to do it, but it would be worth it. That picture is beautiful. 

Stunning! 

Why thankyou! Do you think its that good David?

[David In Indy]

Thanks David!  Very nice of you to help me out.   Yes I see what you mean buy noise.  That appears in a few of my pics.  What is the ISO?  I'm totally photography illiterate.  LOL

I love my new camera.  I'm having so much fun with it.  I got all kinds of pics of me with friends last weekend.   I took one of a couple and got a great shot of a firework going off right over them to the side.  Dont think I should post it though becasue I dont have their permission

The ISO determines how sensitive your camera is to light. The sensitivity increases as the ISO increases. So, for example, a picture taken with an ISO of 100 and a shutter speed of 60, could also be taken using an ISO of 600 and a shutter speed of perhaps 100. This comes in handy if you don't have a tripod, because there is less chance for camera shake and blur due to the higher shutter speed. But the higher ISOs will generate noise. So, I always try to keep a tripod with me for night time pictures and use a lower ISO. I rarely go above 200 unless I have no other choice.  

Lower ISOs often mean clearer pictures.

You can probably adjust the ISO by accessing your camera's menu. Or if your camera is like mine, you may have an ISO adjustment knob on the top of the camera. Most cameras though, will allow you to set the ISO via the camera's menu system. The camera will probably allow you to choose between ISOs of 100-800, or perhaps ISO 50-400. Those two are the most common ranges, along with an AUTO setting. If you leave the camera set to auto ISO, it will probably try to choose higher ISO settings automatically because it's trying to eliminate camera shake and blur. If your camera is doing this, take it off auto and manually choose a lower number... and than make sure you use a tripod!

[David In Indy]

I've GOT to find my digital camera charger!! I just saw an old Camaro parked in a restaurant lot -- it was painted purple with a set of red longhorns affixed to the hood. 

You should try to find the charger Shasta. I'd love to see a picture of that car!! It sounds crazy!!

Why thankyou! Do you think its that good David?

I DO think it's that good Kelda! You should spend some extra money and have it printed professionally and then frame it. It's a very beautiful picture.

[Brokeback_Dev]

I had no idea there was an ISO control on my camera.  Cool tip, David.

[David In Indy]

I had no idea there was an ISO control on my camera.  Cool tip, David.

I just checked the specs of your camera Dev, and it has an ISO range of 80-1250. WOW!! That's a VERY wide ISO range, which is good because it gives you lots of options, but also bad if the camera is automatically setting high ISOs, and it probably is. It does this to try and make things easier for you. My suggestion would be to turn off the auto ISO, and setting the ISO manually to 100. You may have to switch the camera mode over to "program" or "manual" before the menu system will allow you to access the ISO menu screen. I'm not too familiar with Kodak cameras (other than the fact they are very good) but this is typically how the menus work on other cameras. ISO 100 should be able to handle most shooting conditions, especially if you have a tripod, and you can always switch it back to auto ISO later on if you want.

[David In Indy]

Another source of image noise on digital cameras is a very slow shutter speed. Shutter speeds of 4 seconds or more seem to generate lots of noise, so you may want to take this into consideration as well. If you need to use a very slow shutter speed for some reason (time lapse photography for example) you should lower the ISO as much as possible - 80-100 with your Kodak C813 camera. If you need a little more light, you can always open up the aperture a bit more (f/2.8  - f/4). The lower the f number, the wider the aperture. (f/2.8 is wider than f/8)

[injest]

Maybe I should have gotten away from all those tablesl and chairs and gone done to the walk way to take the pic. 

The camera is a Kodak EasyShare  C813.    I love it!

no no no!! I love the empty chairs and tables....gives a 'it is the end of the day and time to rest' feel to the picture!

I really like your camera!